Main Story
  • Decolonizing the Rule of Law
    COMMENT Prof. Dr. Haider Hamoudi 16 July 2021 A few years ago, in a book on the crisis of legitimacy facing the international rule of law movement,  I wrote a chapter on the importance of decolonizing the mind when approaching heavily loaded phraseology such as the “rule of law.”  Then and now, I have been frustrated by enduring colonialist assumptions of legal centralism that dominate the rule of law and human rights fields across the globe.  Pursuant to these assumptions, law only truly…
  • Collective Human Rights in the Context of Decolonisation
    ANALYSIS Prof. Dr. Bernd Kannowski 09 July 2021 What is decolonisation? By decolonisation we mean the processes of replacement that lead to the end of colonial rule, but above all the social, cultural, legal and economic developments that follow state independence. The process of decolonisation can be divided into five phases, with many considering the third as the decisive one. This is about building the future of the former colony. Closely related is the concept of nation-building, which is about establishing the sense…
Latest

SOMALIA

Politics
  • Is Civil War Coming to Somalia?
    COMMENT René Brosius 28 April 2021 The conflict over elections in Somalia[1] , which has been ongoing since last summer, has reached the next stage of escalation. Internationally mediated talks between the government, whose term has constitutionally expired[2] and the National Salvation Council (NSC), consisting of the presidential candidates, the prime ministers of Jubbaland and…
  • Somalia vs. Kenya – The maritime border dispute
    COMMENT René Brosius 09 April 2021 Somalia and Kenya do not have a tension-free relationship. Many reasons for this lie in the conflict-ridden history. The border between the two countries is a disputed colonial legacy. Large ethnic Somali minorities still live on Kenya’s territory, especially in the so-called North Eastern Province. The majority of the…
  • Encouraging Renewable Energy Deployment in Kenya – Analysing the Legal and PoliticalTools
    ANALYSIS Hannah Kadner 12 March 2021 Kenya 2030 – a mission (almost) accomplished. A mission designed to address the issue of insufficient energy supply in the East African country. Considering that Kenya is a so-called developing country (ranking 147th of 189 on the Human Development Index, in 2019) this aim of Kenya`s former president Mwai…
Human Rights
  • Collective Human Rights in the Context of Decolonisation
    ANALYSIS Prof. Dr. Bernd Kannowski 09 July 2021 What is decolonisation? By decolonisation we mean the processes of replacement that lead to the end of colonial rule, but above all the social, cultural, legal and economic developments that follow state independence. The process of decolonisation can be divided into five phases, with many considering the…
  • Entrenching the CRC’s ‘environmental rights’
    COMMENT Prof. Dr. Thoko Kaime 30 June 2021 The CRC does not explicitly guarantee children a right to an ecologically healthy environment. However, within its environment-related children’s rights lies the core content of such a right. Both the interpretive as well as the monitoring functions of the Committee offer the possibility of better defining the…
  • Challenges of Criminalizing ukuthwala and Protecting Girls in South Africa
    COMMENT Lea Mwambene and Roberta Mgidlana In this short note we ask: What are the challenges of criminalizing ukuthwala in the protection of girls affected by the practice? Ukuthwala is a ‘romantic mock abduction’ of an unmarried woman by a man who intended to marry her.[1]The intention is to force the girl’s family to enter…
Elections
  • Insights and Additional Information on the Socio-Legal Discourse around Anti-Racism
    Intersectionality as a Key Concept for the Protection Against Multiple Discrimination The concept of intersectionality takes into account the interpenetration of various identity categories like race, gender, class, sexuality and disability as well as the structural interlocking of multiple forms of oppression like racism, sexism, classism and heterosexism by using an analogy to traffic: “Discrimination,…
  • Constitutional Crisis in Somalia – Democratic, Free and Fair Elections?
    ANALYSIS René Brosius 10 February 2021 The upcoming presidential elections in Somalia are dominated by the debate on free and fair elections, a debate that brought the country to the brink of civil war. While the states of Puntland, Jubbaland as well as the united opposition in the country insist that the president’s term has…
  • Somalia before the elections – From democratic election to dangerous selection process
    ANALYSIS René Brosius 22 January 2021 On 9 January 2021, Somalia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble surprised everyone by announcing that the planned elections would only be held in certain parts of the country. According to Article 1 (1) of Somalia’s provisional constitution, the country is “a federal, sovereign, and democratic republic founded on inclusive…